BC-ME--Maine News Digest, ME

Friday

Nov 16, 2012 at 2:15 PM

Maine at 2 p.m.

The breaking news staffer for Northern New England is Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., to be followed by Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt., at 3 p.m. The breaking news staffer can be reached at 603-224-3327, then at 802-229-0577. The Maine correspondent is David Sharp in Portland. The Portland bureau can be reached at 800- 585-4656 or 207-772-4157.

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MAINE-HEALTH EXCHANGE

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage said Friday he has decided to let the federal government set up a health insurance exchange, rather than have the state design the program that's part of the national Affordable Care Act. Reiterating points he made in a letter a day earlier to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, LePage said that without knowing more details about the cost and nature of state-based exchanges, Maine could be placed in the position of serving as the administrator of a new federal health-care bureaucracy over which the state has little control.

SUPERSTORM SANDY-RANGERS BACK

AUGUSTA — New Yorkers hit by the ravages of Hurricane Sandy wondered what Maine forest rangers — better known for fighting forest fires — were doing in their neck of the woods during the recovery effort, says one of the Mainers. Kent Nelson of the Maine Forest Service had an answer Friday, a day after the nine-member detail he was part of returned to Maine: "We were kind of the eyes and ears of the (New York) health department."

ALSO GETTING ATTENTION:

— MAINE GOP-VOTE INVESTIGATION — Civil libertarians say they're asking Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster to drop his plan to use a post cards mailing to show whether hundreds of people voted fraudulently in the last election.

— LEGISLATIVE RECOUNTS — Maine election officials say recounts are completed on three more legislative races with no changes in outcome.

— HOSTESS-END OF THE ROAD-MAINE — Workers at a Hostess plant in Biddeford, Maine, say they hope it will be reopened under new ownership following the company's decision to cease operations.

— MAINE-HEALTH EXCHANGE — Gov. Paul LePage has decided to let the federal government set up a health insurance exchange, rather than have the state design the program that's part of the national Affordable Care Act.

— INMATES-HORSES — Inmates and officials at the Bolduc Correctional Facility in Warren say a program that allows prisoners to take care of abandoned horses at a nearby farm works wonders for man and animal alike.

— HUNTER FOUND — Maine game wardens have found the body of a missing hunter in a remote area of Washington County.

— PHARMACY ROBBERY-SENTENCE — A Maine man has been sentenced to three years behind bars for robbing a Pittsfield pharmacy while he was on probation for a prior burglary conviction.

— TEEN-CYBERBULLYING — A 15-year-old Orono High School student police say is the victim of one of the most vicious cases of bullying they have ever seen is speaking out.

— ERRATIC DRIVER-FATAL — Authorities say a three-car crash in Windsor sparked by drugs, speed and "erratic operation" has left one person dead and four others injured, including a teenage girl witnesses say tried to grab the steering wheel of a speeding car from an out-of-control driver.

— SUPERSTORM SANDY-RANGERS BACK — Maine forest rangers are back from New York where they helped in the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort for two weeks.

— BUSINESS REGULATIONS — Regulations that are believed to impede business growth will be the topic at a public meeting in Portland.

— CAT DONATIONS STOLEN — A Maine group that takes care of stray and abandoned cats says somebody stole $1,000 it had raised in donations.

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